How can I make it better? | 365:162

I think as a wedding photographer you need to constantly address the question; how could I have made this an even more engaging pic? Bleat-casting only your favourites can become a rather two dimensional personal experience. Seeking the ones you like and then recognising a thought process that could have been employed to create a stronger record if for a step to the left/right or marginally more patient eye, is a cathartic opportunity to question your own so called decisive moments. In this case I’m going to share immediately that I rather like this picture. It’s a quip pic. Not a belly laugh, but a brief grin thing. It’s not ground breaking for sure, but it does share the humour of a high spirited afternoon drinks reception in the high sun at an early Summer’s wedding in London. I’m drawn back enough to embrace a little of the context, but not enough. As the song sort of goes; ‘It’s a step to the right.’ That would have invited more of the guests you currently see to the left of frame, busied up the picture, made it look like more like the event I was personally witnessing. The context is certainly creeping in, but not as prevalent as it could be. It’s a hot sun, hot indeed. Swinging right the way round to the right would have lost the over exposed tree behind them, and possibly extricated the stone wall to the left too, though it may have also lost some of the amusing aspect of the two chaps face on. They’re a little centered for me, maybe a tad too obvious in compositional terms. In my defence your honour, it’s a grab shot. A second later and this image is gone, or certainly very different. But it’s always worth sharing that as photographers, we do or at least should have a thought process whenever we go to record a moment. I’d be hoping for a seven from Len in the old days for this one. Perhaps.

Shot data: focal length 85mm, f1.8, 1/200, ISO 100, over-exposed by one third of a stop.